Hyeon-Man Baek1, Hon J. Yu2, Shadfar Bahri2, Jeon-Hor Chen2, Orhan Nalcioglu2, Min-Ying Su2
1Department of Radiology, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA; 2Center for Function Onco-Imaging, University of California-Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA
In vivo proton MR spectroscopy (1H-MRS) has been shown to improve cancer diagnosis based on elevated choline-containing compounds (tCho). In this study, in vivo quantification of tCho signal from the 12 malignant breast tumors at 3T was carried out with the AMARES method using a prior knowledge. After T1 and T2 relaxation times were corrected, the tCho levels in this work had a range of 0.19 3.05 mmol/kg and that is consistent with previously published values in the literature. 2 (17%) of 12 lesions showed that the CRLB exceeded the estimate. Therefore, we conclude that the internal method using the fully relaxed water as a reference could be used for quantifying tCho metabolite accurately in breast cancer patients using a 3T scanner.
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